Baboró conference to examine how we nurture creativity in the classroom

Galway Advertiser, Thu, May 07, 2015

Baboró International Arts Festival for Children is to hold a ground-breaking conference entitled Opening the Door to Creative Teaching and Learning. The conference will take place in NUI Galway on Thursday May 28 and is aimed at anyone interested in improving levels of confidence, creative and critical thinking and problem solving in primary school children, and in finding new ways of exploring the curriculum using creativity and active learning.

At the conference, the outcomes of the innovative 3-year project, BEAST! (Baboró: Environment, Arts, Science and Technology ), will be presented by social researchers from the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at NUI Galway. The team, comprising of Patsy O’Sullivan, Dr. Lisa Moran and Dr. Cormac Forkan, has been following the project closely since Baboró started working with scientists, teachers, artists and primary students in 2012 to place creativity at the heart of the teaching of the primary Science curriculum.

Guest speakers on the day are Paul Collard, Chief Executive of the UK-based organisation CCE (Creativity, Culture and Education ), which is responsible for delivering the British government’s major creative educational programmes for young people in England; and Professor Pat Dolan, UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement and joint founder and Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at NUI Galway.

Paul Collard is the Chief Executive of CCE (Creativity, Culture and Education ), the organisation responsible for delivering the British government’s major creative educational programmes for young people in England. He has 25 years’ experience of working in the arts and is an expert in delivering programmes that use creativity and culture as drivers of social and economic change.

Professor Pat Dolan is the UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement and joint founder and Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at NUI Galway.

The UNESCO Chair is the first to be awarded in the Republic of Ireland and delivers a comprehensive programme of work towards the objective of promoting civic engagement and leadership skills among children and youth.

Social Research Team Members: Patsy O’Sullivan is a freelance social science researcher and works closely with the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre (UCFRC ) at NUI Galway. Dr. Lisa Moran is a post-doctoral researcher at the (UCFRC ) while Dr. Cormac Forkan is the Course Director / lecturer on the BA Youth and Family Studies (GY120 ) and researcher at the UCFRC.

There has been widespread support for the programme from all stakeholders and participants. Commenting on the upcoming conference, Baboró General Manager, Teenagh Cunningham said: “The BEAST! project has taught us so much over the last 3 years. The conference promises to be a stimulating and engaging day with contributions from experts in the field, as well as an opportunity to look at some of the work that was produced. We can certainly guarantee food for thought!”

Baboró’s BEAST! conference, ‘Opening the Door to Creative Teaching and Learning’, will take place on Thursday May 28th at the Life Course Building, NUI Galway from 10:00 – 16:00. Tickets €20 are on sale through http://www.baboro.ie/events. Enquiries to the Baboró office on 091 562667 or [email protected]

The BEAST! project has been funded by NUI Galway, Science Foundation Ireland, The Ireland Funds, Galway City and County Councils and Galway Local Enterprise.

Baboró International Arts Festival for Children would like to acknowledge the continued support of The Arts Council. This year’s festival runs from October 12 – 18.